The Paradox of Choice

4500 miles, 13 States and 6 weeks in civilization are behind us. We’ve met wonderful people and had fantastic adventures while living out of 3 carry on’s, hotels and a car we bought in the US.

That’s 6 weeks of being in control of the temperature in every room, including the car. 6 weeks of instant access to any kind of store you can imagine, at 1am, on a Sunday night. 6 weeks of picking directions to travel in, without notice, with the internet as our guide. 6 weeks of any kind of movies/concerts/museum/park to entertain us along with any kind of food imaginable ready for ordering/picking up/delivery, 24/7. 6 weeks of glorious drinking water available ANYWHERE, as much as you wanted.

In other words, we’ve had a fantastic time thoroughly taking advantage of everything the US has to offer and reveling in this sense of control and convenience.

Man, you should have seen the look on the girls’ faces as they got to pay the pizza delivery guy, which is something they had never before experienced and had only ever seen on TV.

And then you spend a few hours on planes and boats and just like that, it’s all gone.

The nice car with the buttons is gone. The AC is gone and you’re back to “indoor camping” with open doors and windows and a house makes a variety of noises as the West Indies breeze blows through it. No more food deliveries but instead a small grocery store the size of most American produce sections. No more shoe stores or movie theatres or museums. No more carpets, although the scorpion that greeted me last night didn’t seem to mind the tile floor.

No more control, just you and nature and whatever the supply boat happened to deliver this week.

Slow, uncontrollable and inconvenient. But somehow, this lack of instant access to choices feels more like a relief than a burden. (Although, be sure to ask me about this next time the island runs out of gasoline, or the grocery store is out of milk and eggs again.)

There is a certain liberating quality to simplicity, as the more choices we have, the more complicated things become, the more pressure there seems to be.

Kind of like when you get to go on a 6 week road trip with your 4 kids to chose any place you want to live.